A content delivery network or content distribution network (CDN) is system of one or more servers deployed in one or more data centers across the Internet. The goal of a CDN is to serve content to end user systems with high availability and high performance. CDNs serve a large portion of Internet content today, including web objects (text, graphics, URLs and scripts), downloadable objects (media files, software, documents), applications (e-commerce, portals), live streaming media, on-demand streaming media, and social networks.
In order to access content from a CDN, certain security or identity credentials may be used. One example of these security credentials is a digital certificate. The use of digital certificates using public and private key encryption methods is widely known in the field of computing, particularly in networked computing. Digital certificates generally follow the X.509 standard, developed by the International Standards Organization (ISO). These certificates create a binding between an entity's public key and its identity. The digital certificates may be issued by the CDN or by a corresponding certificate authority (CA) to a requestor, such as a customer of the CDN. In some cases, the customer may be a corporation or other organization, including multiple end user systems.